Angela Hewitt brings her poise to Fauré Piano Music: CD review

Pianist Hewitt has let the Gabriel Fauré compositions on album mellow and age into sleek masterworks

Angela Hewitt's Fauré
Piano Music: few composers suit her poise and elegance as much as Fauré.

Published on Tue Aug 27 2013

Like all the great actors of Hollywood’s golden age, renowned Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt has a signature style that shapes whatever type of music she is playing. Few composers suit her poise and elegance as much as France’s Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924). His gorgeous compositions for piano hide a multitude of technical hurdles that cause most pianists to politely smile and push the music aside. But Hewitt has persevered to great effect.

In the album notes, Hewitt writes that she learned the seven works on this album in her youth. She has let them mellow and age into sleek masterworks that communicate all the music and none of the struggle in getting there.

The album is bookended by late Fauré — his Thème et variations, Op. 79 — and an early work, the Ballade for solo piano, Op. 19. In between are two lush Valse-caprices and three fantasia-like Nocturnes.

Whether smiling at the flawless surface polish of Hewitt’s fingerwork or admiring the elaborate architecture that props up this deceptively pretty music, this is one of those albums that reveals fresh insights with every listen.

My favourite track is the “Nocturne No. 13,” which Fauré wrote in 1921, after the death of his close friend Camille Saint-Saëns. Hewitt masterfully balances emotion and a suspension of time in this multi-layered treat.

John Terauds

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